NASENCO Delegate wins Teacher of the Year Award

We are delighted to share that Jemini Patel, a recent delegate on our National Award for SEN Coordination course, has won the Teacher of the Year Award at nasen’s sixth annual awards ceremony.

Prior to completing the course, Jemini worked as a teacher at the Whitefriars School in Harrow. She decided to study our NASENCO course as she felt she needed to develop her knowledge to support the children in her class with SEN. She believed the children needed more support and wanted to be able to improve this.

Jemini is now working a SENCO and Assistant Head Teacher at an all-through school for children aged 4 – 19 years old.

The progress in her phase is outstanding and she feels this was largely due to the SEN interventions she learnt about on the course. One of the projects Jemini tackled as part of the NASENCO course was to implement interventions in her class. These were so successful, they have now become a whole-school practice and Jemini believes this is a direct result of what she learnt from the course.

Jemini added that the flexibility of the course really appealed to her and Anne, her course tutor, was very attentive throughout.

On 14 October 2022, Jemini attended the glittering celebration at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham, where she received her award.

Speaking of her win, Jemini said: “It is a great honour to receive this award. I have an amazing team at Whitefriars who have supported me to make a difference, which I am thankful for. This award has inspired and motivated me to continue and develop our inclusive practice even further.”

Whitefriars School Headteacher, Jonathan Watson, added, “Jemini’s work is phenomenal. Jemini works tirelessly with dedication, commitment, and expertise to ensure pupils with special educational needs and disabilities at our school receive a fully inclusive education. Jemini’s unwavering belief in the potential of all, combined with her drive to continually improve provision, has resulted in high quality pupil support. Our school and our pupils are lucky to have Jemini, and Jemini is a very worthy winner of this award. We are very proud of you”.

We wish to congratulate Jemini on her fantastic achievements and look forward to seeing the further development of both herself and her students.